By Hector MacDonald a member of one of the SY2E – Remain in the EU groups.

The EU does not get everything right, and now its greatest achievements are under threat.

Many complaints about the EU are justified. Its administrators have lost touch with the people they serve. It has occasionally tried to regulate beyond sensible limits. Its agricultural policies are wasteful and counterproductive. The association agreement with Ukraine may have contributed to that nation’s civil war. These are the understandable mistakes of a large and evolving organisation that is still learning its place in the world. They are not systemic faults. The EU needs experienced and pragmatic countries like the UK to help it avoid and overcome these mistakes.

More seriously, the EU is now facing some of the toughest challenges it has ever encountered. The euro seems to have been a grave error for several member states. Youth unemployment is dangerously high. Greece remains in a critical condition. Hundreds of thousands of migrants are testing not only the EU’s external borders but its internal solidarity. Russia is threatening the stability of the whole region and challenging EU and NATO unity. Extremist political parties are gaining support.

Consequently the European Union is, for the first time in its history, at risk of fragmentation and even collapse. Not only would this mean economic recession for the whole continent, bringing mass unemployment and widespread suffering, but it would also reverse the gains made in the ideals we all share. The rule of law, democracy, scientific progress, freedom – all would be diminished if the walls go up and the extremists take over.

The fastest way to precipitate such a fragmentation would be for Britain to leave the EU.